Fix or Replace?

I have a 4 to 5 year old Samsung LCD Monitor that developed an issue where after a 20 minute warm up the monitor would go black. If you cycled the power switch it would come back for two seconds then go black again. I did some quick research and found that a frequent issue is with the capacitors in the switching power supply.















I felt that the effort would be worth my time, so I replaced all the capacitors after a fairly lengthy dis-assembly process and then reconnected everything without fully assembling it and re-tested it. Unfortunately the problem remained. I continued the research now after spending nearly a full day on the project and determined after some lengthy tests that the fault is in the back lighting system. The back lights on this monitor are compact florescent (CFL) units. To replace the CFL is not as simple however. These units are attached to the panel assembly on each end and there are two tubes in each. I think many hams and electronic tinkers hate to throw away hardware if it can be repaired and I have gone to great lengths on other items in the past to get it done, but sometimes you just need to call it quits, or it will consume all your time. I wish things were made to be repaired however many are not or the parts costs exceed its value.

So in this case I will be parting it out to the junk box. There are many good parts and who knows they may live again.